.@AP gives publicity and support to October 7 rape deniers. Hamas uses it to demand apologies from world leaders for rape accusations

On Wednesday, AP published two stories about how two of the narratives of rape from October 7 were found out not to be true.

I first read this one:

Other accounts from that day, however, proved to be untrue. They include two debunked testimonies from volunteers with the Israeli search and rescue organization ZAKA, whose stories helped fuel a global clash over whether sexual violence occurred during the attack and on what scale.

Some allege the accounts of sexual assault were purposely concocted. ZAKA officials and others dispute that. Regardless, AP’s examination of ZAKA’s handling of the now debunked stories shows how information can be clouded and distorted in the chaos of the conflict.

The accounts have encouraged skepticism and set off a highly charged debate about the scope of what occurred on Oct. 7, one still playing out on social media and in college campus protests.

I expected the story to continue saying that despite the mistakes by volunteers who were not experts, there is overwhelming evidence of rape and sexual crimes on October 7, and then to detail some of that evidence and perhaps link to the film "Screams Before Silence" that shows what people witnessed firsthand on that horrible day.

But the article didn't go there. 

It just ended, giving the impression that Israelis are a bunch of liars even though it mentioned that the UN said there is "credible evidence" of sexual crimes. No details of those were reported in the article.

It is shocking.

It turns out that this is a companion article to another which is only marginally better. There is no link to the other article, so the one linked above, as a standalone piece, is ghastly. 

The larger article mentions a little bit more about the evidence, but gives far more than equal time to those who deny the rapes.

Some critics of Israel’s war, meanwhile, have raised questions about the weight of the evidence, using debunked testimonies, including from ZAKA volunteers, to do so. The site oct7factcheck.com, which says its aim is to combat “atrocity propaganda” that could “justify military or political actions,” has repeatedly challenged investigations in mainstream media about sexual violence.

The site, which is run by a loose coalition of tech industry employees supporting Palestinian rights, says it has not yet reached a conclusion on the occurrence of gender-based violence. It has alleged that ZAKA members are “behind many of the Oct. 7 fabrications.” The site has also highlighted other debunked accounts, including about a baby found in an oven and a hostage giving birth in captivity.

The website Oct7factcheck is completely anonymous. No one has any idea of the biases or qualifications of the authors. It is quoted uncritically. Yet while it casts doubt on every single Israeli witness to sexual assault, it uncritically accepts Palestinian claims of alleged Israeli war crimes. And almost unbelievably, it cannot find anything negative to say about Hamas. 

That is not a fact-check site. It is an anti-Israel site that cherry picks facts to reach a foregone conclusion. Yet it has now gained huge amounts of publicity by AP.

Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a U.S. policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank, said a long history of what he calls Israeli disinformation and propaganda has fueled global skepticism over the claims. The debunked ZAKA stories, he said, contributed to the sense that Israel exaggerated accounts of atrocities committed by Hamas to dehumanize Palestinians as its military continues its deadly offensive.

“Skepticism of all claims made by the Israeli military, a military that is being investigated for genocide at The Hague, are not only justified but should be encouraged,” he said. “That’s why Palestinians, and much of the international community, are asking for thorough scrutiny.”

Tariq Kenney-Shawa's very first tweet on October 7 justified the massacre.

There is no skepticism about whether  the people quoted have an agenda, or a history of lies, or anything. They are "experts" to the reader of AP.

Both articles give far more credence to the supporters of Hamas than to the victims.  

There is nothing wrong with tracking down the origins of discredited stories. We all want the truth. But without reporting on the huge amounts of evidence being gathered that leave absolutely no doubt as to the sexual assaults on October 7, AP has turned the facts of sexual assault on October 7 and afterwards into a mere "he said/she said" story. 

When it comes to rape, that is unforgivable. 

I don't know how much is the fault of the two evidently Jewish reporters, Tia Goldenberg and Julia Frankel,  and how much from AP editors, who are known to have a serious anti-Israel bias. But these articles are absolutely disgraceful and disgusting.

No doubt the reporters would point to the paragraphs that say, in general terms, that evidence is strong supporting the sexual assault.  But the way it is written is the opposite - specific allegations from October are debunked, allegations that the Israeli government stopped making as soon as it was discovered that they were mistakes in the chaos and fear of the first days after the massacre.  In this AP piece, the door is left open that every accusation might be a lie.

The main point should have been the evidence that proves that Hamas and other Gazans abused women, and then the article should note how some of the stories that were reported immediately were inadvertent errors that came about because ZAKA responders are tasked with recovering body parts and blood, not forensics, and there was simply no manpower to treat each murder as a proper crime scene when Jewish law mandates treating the body with respect and burying it quickly. 

Beyond that, has AP or any major new organization ever systematically shown that Hamas knowingly lies in its own statements, a pattern from the beginning of the war that would show that lying is part of Hamas' very strategy and the media has been its puppet?  Hamas lies by default and Israel tells the truth by default - has AP ever investigated their relative track records? Of course not. It still gives them both equal weight,and in fact puts Israeli statements through much more rigorous tests than it does for Hamas. This story is not written in a vacuum - it implies Israeli disregard for the truth while I cannot recall any major media writing about Hamas the same way.

Indeed, Hamas is thrilled with the story, putting out its own press release saying that AP has now debunked all the evidence of sexual assault on October 7. 

The [Hamas] movement indicated, in its comment on the American agency’s report, this evening, Wednesday, that the Israeli allegations about sexual violence were used for the purpose of demonizing the resistance, and to cover up the humanitarian behavior that appeared to the world regarding the resistance’s good treatment of Zionist prisoners during their detention in Gaza . 

The movement stressed that this report, as well as many reports issued by international media and human rights bodies, which refuted these allegations and proved that they are pure lies and blatant fabrications, requires US President Biden and other officials in some European countries to apologize and stop repeating these false accusations against the resistance and the Palestinian people.

In its statement, the movement called on Ms. Pramila Patten, the UN Special Envoy for Sexual Violence in Conflict Areas, to re-evaluate and review its report in which it accused the Palestinian resistance of committing sexual violence, after relying on Zionist narratives that were proven to be baseless, and without conducting any professional investigations into these false allegations.

Even here Hamas is lying, since the story did not debunk every accusation and, at least elliptically, mentions that the evidence for sexual assault is strong. Will AP issue a statement refuting Hamas' interpretation of the story? Or will it allow itself to be an instrument in spreading pure hate even further?

AP's reporting is as unconscionable as a report cherry picking inconsistencies in accounts of the Holocaust over the years without stating clearly that the Holocaust is an incontrovertible fact and that its deniers have a track record of hate. Just as with the Holocaust, antisemites denied the rape reports first and looked for evidence to justify their position later - their motivations are not seeking truth but attempting to cast doubt on it.

As it is, AP has just increased the amount of antisemitism in the world. And it seems inconceivable that the reporters and editors were not aware that this is how the story would be used. 

(h/t Ben)

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